Car Hire Cuts Costs and Emissions for UK Public Sector

Recent research from rental firms and government departments has shown that the UK public sector is increasing its use of car hire in order to cut CO2 emissions, administration costs and improve safety levels.

The likes of local council authorities, health trusts and central government departments are all increasingly turning to rental firms to handle the transportation requirements of their staff. The major money saver of this change is that it removes the administrative burden of self-regulated mileage reclaim schemes that have been popular in public sector institutions. While in principle these schemes encouraged employees to drive more economically, in fact the administrative costs often outweigh the benefits.

By turning to car hire firms, public sector employees no longer have to reclaim mileage expenses but they are also finding it easy to cut down on their carbon footprint as they are encouraged to use smaller, more environmentally friendly cars that are readily available. CO2 emissions are being reduced further as employees are asked to consider car sharing and pick the most efficient vehicle for the job.

Geoff Derham, head of waste and fleet services at City of York Council, said: “Car sharing schemes are now providing a much wider range of solutions and these give our employees much greater choice around how they travel for work. In addition to branches in the community, located close to our offices, the opportunity to have car sharing vehicles onsite for hourly use means car hire is available for even very short trips.”

“We’ve found that rental is much safer and more convenient than relying on employees to use their own vehicles – or indeed running our own pool cars, which involved a lot of administration. Car hire has become a default option for a significant portion of travel at City of York Council.”

Rental firms allow public sector workers the mobility and flexibility to carry out their service industry work in the most cost-effective manner possible. As they can choose to hire vehicles by the hour, by the day or for longer periods, they can pick a rental scheme that allows them to get the maximum use from the vehicle without having to utilise their own.

Since there is now a greater range of fuel-efficient cars and larger vehicles available than ever before, public sector organisations are sure to find the right vehicle to suit their needs at the right price. SMEs and larger private companies have been following this trend of utilising rentals as opposed to tying up a lot of resources maintaining large fleets of vehicles.